Solving Problems with Spreadsheets

Restaurant Business Model

This example restaurant business model is great for entrepreneurs considering opening their own restaurant.

This Excel model covers startup costs, operational planning and expenses, and projected financials. You can enter your own assumptions and verify the impact on the financial results.

There are metrics included to help make sure your assumptions are realistic. For example, updating the detailed build-out costs provides you with an estimate of cost per square foot. You can also see annual sales per square foot, and your estimated staffing level and cost.

Example – Estimating Sales
Estimating sales is an important step for evaluating a restaurant business. This model allows you to enter sales by day of week and shows you the % of total for the week. For example, if your restaurant does $30k in sales per week and $8k on Saturday, the model shows Saturday as providing 27% of the weekly sales. Sound right for your restaurant? You can also see the total number of customers based on your sales and average ticket. If the customer count sounds too high, just revisit your assumptions.

Also consider the product mix – such as percentage of alcohol sales by day. If Saturday has a higher mix of alcohol sales, update the model and see how much gross margins change. Changing your product mix assumptions will flow through to the P&L and let you test the impact of each assumption.